As mobile communication devices have become a more intricate part of users' daily lives, the demand for expanded services for those devices continues to rise. Technological innovations have provided the means for many new and interesting uses for mobile communication devices to the point where mobile communication devices may be utilized efficiently for a variety of tasks including sending email, calendaring, and other functions. In some examples, specific applications of technology continue to provide expanded services. One such example is in push-to-talk (PTT) communications.
Push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) technologies were initially adopted by cell phone carriers as a way to instantaneously send transmissions between users on the system by emulating walkie-talkie communications over a mobile phone network. This system represented an application with specific technical limitations because communications characterized by a walkie-talkie type communications are half-duplex. That is, only one user may speak (or transmit) at a time during transmissions while all other users in a call may only listen.
However, there may be examples where interrupting a call may be desirable. In conventional systems, calls may generally not be interrupted. Rather, if an interrupting user desires to interrupt a call while a transmitting user is speaking, the interrupting user may be limited to submitting a request to the network. After a transmitting user releases the floor, that request may be processed and floor control may be granted to the interrupting user. Floor control dictates which user is allowed to transmit during a call. Floor control generally follows pre-determined rules. Thus, conventional systems may not allow an interrupting user to efficiently interrupt a call, even where an interruption may be highly desirable.
Likewise, in some examples, it may be desirable to monitor a call without notifying the “listened to” users that they are being monitored. This may be helpful in a variety of situations such as monitoring a sales agent for quality assurance. In both examples, conventional systems may not provide for effective interruption or monitoring of PoC calls. As such, methods for barging users on a real-time communications network are provided herein.